Hills Run Red - A case of someone watching way too many horror movies.

A movie freak named Tyler(Tad Hilgenbrink), is obsessed with a movie trailer of a film called The Hills Run Red. The film was unfinished and banned 20 years ago due to its graphic content. The director by the name of Wilson Wyler Concannon(William Sadler) vanished without a trace along with the entire cast. Tyler wants to retrieve the film and put together a documentary on it. Together with two of his friends Lalo(Alex Wyndham) and Serina(Janet Montgomery), along with the directors daughter Alexa(Sophie Monk), Tyler sets out into the woods for the film completely unaware of the horror that awaits.-summary

In this day and age, it's near impossible to find any form of entertainment with a shred of originality. But seriously, I can care less about that if a director can take old ideas and add a clever twist to them. Unfortunately, director Dave Parker doesn't really deliver much here. Now in all honesty, the film does feel different from some of its brethren, but for all of the wrong reasons. In addition, the film also seems to be lacking a clear focus and comes off feeling as if it was 81 minutes of completely missing its own point.

Released straight to DVD in 2009, The Hills Run Red is an average slasher film that has a heavily familiar feel, and it began with an interesting premise surrounding the mystery of the lost movie. The pacing, suspense, and the plot is fairly good delivering a little story at a time, and the addition of character development helps quite a bit. I found the characters to be somewhat likable, and the solid acting also helped them to be more tolerable. The killer who goes by the name of Babyface is the most interesting horror villain to come around in a long time. I really like his appearance with the broken doll face being used as a mask. His origin is as twisted as his persona, and it shows by the way he handles his victims.

Although The Hills Run Red appeals to my blood-craving senses. The film appears to suffer from some type of identity crisis and sub-par direction. Its presentation almost felt as if it was a satire of the horror genre, by the overexposure and parodying of certain horror cliches, gimmicks, and character mannerisms. At times, it even ventures off into the realm of a dark comedy, but it makes attempts at being a serious hardcore slasher. This posed a problem for me, because the results weren't satisfying from either angle, and it clearly didn't achieve its desired effect. The so-called revelations leading up to the climax lacked the emotional punch, because certain elements playing into the plot twist was revealed earlier on. Therefore, the surprise twist, wasn't exactly a twist at all.

The Hills Run Red was able to maintain its high tension when the plot picked up. It delivered a good amount of chase scenes, and the action never really let up. The film isn't a slouch in the gore and violence department. The kills can be downright brutal, but in a campy way with pickaxe's to the head and various torture elements. The special effects are decent, but the coolest murders are delivered in the video footage of the mystery movie.

The film was on its way towards repenting its sins, by delivering a very good, yet, seen that before ending. Unfortunately, that was somewhat botched with a rather questionable twist, that the film could have done without. I really don't understand what the directors aim was.

The Hills Run Red is a film that has its issues. However, it's not something that I truly dislike, because it gave me some of what I was looking for. Overall, this is something that mainly the hardcore horror buffs will enjoy. Those who have a disdain for over the top violence and nudity shouldn't even bother.

Pros:
-Gore
-Freakish looking killer and pacing

Cons:
-Predictable and so unfocused